I think it was some sort of *almost* forward-planning. In episode 2, Ash claims that the bird he saw was an Articuno - we now know that it wasn't. I think the creators only put that in in case a second generation didnt come about, but the base ideas must have been there from the start.

I thought it was really cool at the time, and even to this day like 10 years later I think it's cool how they do that. I'm not sure they intended to make it a Pokémon at the time, but it's still cool. At first I thought it was a Fearow, until I saw the episode a few times. It was referred to as "the rainbow phoenix" at my elementary school before it had a name.

And then they did something similar with Dawn and Mesprit. Nowhere near as dramatic...

I really enjoyed the first episode of Pokémon. It simply amazed me in excitement for future episodes which did indeed come later on. I did really enjoy the Ho-Oh appearing in the first episode when it was a second generation Pokémon.

When Ash saw the Ho-oh, it made him stay ten forever, as the pokedex says that whoever sees it will be granted eternal happiness, and for ash to be happy forever he would have to be 10

_________________I don't believe any pokemon is better than another, (although Arcanineis my fav) I would just use a Bidoof as soon as a Charizard, I would rather lose with my own Magikarp then win with a traded Mewtwo

I forget. I was like eight when I saw it. I don't even remember my eighth birthday, let alone what I was feeling when I saw a great golden bird fly across a rainbow.

I have always loved the dramatic music that played just before the end of episode one, though. That, and the giant bolt of lightning that I'm convinced altered Pikachu physiologically.

Edit: arcanine_master_57, I think you might just be onto something. What else can explain how Ash can be TEN! at the beginning of the Unova saga, even though it was explicitly stated that he turned eleven around the time he was in Goldenrod City, three years into the fifteen year run of the anime? The answer is that Ho-oh granted him eternal youth. Recall that that what was actually stated was that the party was for the one year anniversary that Ash and Pikachu had been together, not for Ash's eleventh birthday!

It's a floating timeline. Any references to time passing like birthdays or anniversaries or "It's been a whole year since we've been here" were dub-added only. Ash still being 10 after fifteen years is the same thing as Bart Simpson still being 10 after twenty-five years.

I don't know the the Japanese dialogue well enough to really know the difference between what Japan has said, and what 4Kids has said, but I get your point. Still, Pokemon, to me, is about progress. It follows a plot, albeit a loose one, whereas the Simpsons, as well as many other shows, live in their own domain with little to no plot, and because of this, I can understand Bart and Lisa not aging. Ash, however, is traveling the world, and largely on foot at that, and is defeating trainers who have trained for years solely for the purpose of testing and defeating trainers like him, and his regional placements are none too insignificant, especially for a "ten" year old like him. I guess I'm looking at it too realistically, and I can understand why he needs to have a floating timeline, from the writer's point of view, but this flaw is part of the reason I stopped watching the anime in the first place. It just really irks me that he basically starts over again with each new series.

Early episodes of the Simpsons specifically stated and flashed back to events that showed Homer and Marge growing up in the 60's while Bart and Lisa were born in the early 80's. Later episodes of the Simpsons showed flashbacks of Homer and Marge as a childless couple in the mid-90's, which was a time period in which the show had already been airing and the show itself AT THAT TIME had made jokes or plots specific to that era.

So, yeah, I'd actually argue that the Simpsons or any other show with a floating timeline (hi, Degrassi!) that has incidents to pin it down to specific time periods are worse than what Pokemon does. Pokemon is at least lucky enough that the characters and events aren't dated like Lisa Simpson's wedding date being given as 2010 in 1995, only for her to still be 8 years old once that year had come and gone, because in Pokemon they never had a set starting point and other than the first few episodes they've avoided specific mentions to the passage of time entirely.

Also, Ash at first was not really traveling "the world." The first four Regions are all based on Japan and therefore the interpretation is usually that he's traveling a Pokemon world proxy of Japan by foot in those series, which is certainly more reasonable. Unova and Kalos make things more muddy though.

Sorry, I didn't quite think the "traveling the world by foot comment" all the way through. I apologize for my gaffe. My point, however, was that he is traveling relatively large distances (mostly) by foot within a short period of time, whether it be entire continents (which he obviously isn't) or a country the size of Japan. This may not even be true, however; there is no actual convention for the distance between, say, Pewter City and Cerulean City, let alone the distance from Pallet Town to Twinleaf Town, even if we do know that Ash's home country was based off of Japan.

Pokemon (the anime, at least) doesn't indicate dates beyond, say, the comparison of the births of the significant characters to each other, May to Max for example, or things like Jirachi's once in a millennium awakening, which are insignificant overall anyway.

As far as the writers and the sales trends have indicated, though, by the time all is said and done, Ash will have travelled what can be constituted as a world.

So, yes, I agree with you; Ash, and those around him by proxy, are the subjects of a floating timeline, but simply to keep him relatable to the target audience, and perhaps to maintain his personality. I accept this, but it gets to be wearing when he's made the mentor of other ten year olds at the beginning of both of his fourth and sixth regions, after having competed in three and four regional championships respectively. The logic that regional championships would base their schedule around when he is eligible just isn't realistic.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to come off as contentious. I was joking when I mentioned that Ho-oh granted him eternal youth. On the other hand, this debate is fun.

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